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Echelon: Wind Warriors - Feature Feature
Derek dela Fuente
18/08/2003
Our roving reporter spoke to Buka about Echelon: Wind Warriors, a sequel, which offers an unusual slant on the flight sim theme...
Buka, hailing from Russia, has been around a number of years with great success in their own country but limited acclaim around the rest of the world. With a plethroa of interesting titles coming from this publisher we targeted their next release, which is already reaching cult status is Germany, one of the keenest and critical of game fans, for a quick once over. Our roving reporter spoke to Buka about Echelon: Wind Warriors, a sequel, which offers an unusual slant on the flight sim theme.
âIn Echelon: Wind Warriors the gameplay is totally different. You always have numerous enemies around, and you always have to fight. Gameplay will rather remind you of some action-arcade game than of a flight-sim one. BUT! There is an enormous BUT although the aircrafts in Echelon: Wind Warriors are easy to control, we managed to add details that make it all very realistic. Each aircraft has different physics and aircraft vibrate when hit by enemies and if your wing has been shot off, your craft may start falling down in a spin, etc. This makes the game unique, as it really breaks the boundaries of the genre.â
It certainly appears that this is a unique cross between an arcade game and a flight sim. It offers all the best bits of a sim game but without all the boring technical stuff and complex controls.
Echelon: Wind Warriors is different from the first Echelon (2001) and is much improved with many innovations and the original is fondly, well regarded, by many gamers.
Set in 2351, players assume the role of Major Jason âWolfâ Scott - one of the best Galactic Federation pilots. Placed in a first-person, tension filled white-knuckle combat environment, you will foray over lush alien landscapes and towering cities as a member of an elite fighting force. This futuristic flight combat delivers the latest technical and intriguingly devised gameplay innovations without sacrificing accessibility for newcomers. Players fly a variety of futuristic aircraft through a number of diverse missions set on a spectacular continent that takes seven hours of real-time flying to cross.
Flight sims to most are arduous, boring and a very specialised package but Buka has created a game of compromise but with plenty of action. âUnlike in other flight-sims, you do not have to press almost all the keys of your keyboard if you want to simply take off or land. Your mouse and, perhaps a couple of keys, are all you need to know. And if you have a good joystick, youâll need nothing else to memorise to be able to complete any mission.â
All the missions have been designed in a completely different way - in Wind Warriors, all missions are episodes of the same plot and the difficulty is gradually increasing from mission to mission. Even if you replay Wind Warriors, you never know what mission will be your next one. The game is non-linear and your actions in the mission you are playing now will determine what mission you will play after that and in a number of missions, you can win only if you coordinate your actions not only with others in your wing, but also with other regiments at the battlefield, including ground units.
âBasically, Echelon is an aircraft simulator, and thus the player needs a considerable field of vision. On the other hand, the majority of battles take place at very low altitude, and in many missions, the player has to interact with ground units. And so landscapes and ground objects should be displayed in great detail.â
All aircrafts in the game are divided into three main types: BFF (Battle Field Fighter), INT (Interceptor) and AP (Assault Plane) and weapons have their advantages and disadvantages. Each type of aircraft can be armed with two to three types of weapons simultaneously. This gives a number of good combinations of weapons to each type of aircraft. âWe have added a few types of plasma weapons and the possibility to select several weapons simultaneously to fire volleys. Perhaps, if we have time, we'll add the freshly designed Anti Missile System to the list of weaponry...There will be a lot of new ground-based weapons.â
âThere are almost 50 missions in the game. And they can be of eight types:
- Attack an enemy base - that is bombing it. In such missions you will pilot an AP (assault plane (a heavy bomber actually)).
- Cover an AP attacking an enemy base (here you will pilot a BFF (battlefield fighter)).
- Defend your base from enemy air attacks (In missions of this kind you will have to pilot a BFFor an INT (interceptor)).
- Defend your base from enemy ground attacks (AP).
- Escort (BFF).
- Reconnaissance (BFF, INT).
- Patrol (BFF, INT).
- Dogfight (BFF, INT) .
Needless to say for completing missions successfully you will be awarded medals and given new ranks.
Echelon: Wind Warriors uses a proprietary 3D graphics engine that allows for spectacular effects, such as dust and particle effects, highly realistic environments, beautiful landscapes, detailed building models, more than 30 types of friendly and enemy craft, 100 vehicles, and over 100 additional objects.
There are many interesting game modes, include including multiplayer, along with standard deathwatch, common team play, (capture the fort) and co-op play. The number of players is limited only by the resource of a server and its connection.
Currently Buka has a range of projects in development, including The Entente: World War I Battlefield, Battle Mages and Fair Strike. Echelon: Wind Warriors is unique with some clever ideas, a strong in game enemy, logical AI, 250 different types of vehicles and structures deployed on a massive scale, massive environment and presentation and look that is very different.
